May 2012 - Amazing Bees - Beekeepers from Melbourne Australia

Feature of the month

Sharing some of our joys, highlights and worries of beekeeping ...

May 2012 - Bee-quiet time of the year - really?

All winter preparations for our hives were completed just in time and all our hives feel heavy, winter-ready. For quite some time there is no need to disturb the bees by opening a hive and we now have the time to catch up with all the things that we could not as long as our bees needed our attention and care.

Well, that's what we thought - but the mild weather every now and then, with day temperatures up to 20 degrees keeps the bees very active on such warm days. Whilst the bees are foraging, returning laden with pollen, they don't seem to find nectar. Being active means they need more energy and the bees' energy source is honey.

When no nectar is coming in bees use up their honey stores - and hives that were heavy about six weeks ago are feeling a lot lighter now. Some of our hives needed another batch of sugar syrup; thanks to the mild temperatures we can still feed them.

Tree Dahlia are in full blossom and on warm and sunny days bees are having a good time out, diving into the abundance of pollen the blossoms produce. Very much the same scenario as last year in our June feature.

Not much else to report at this bee-quiet time of the year.